The fire crackled as Octavia sat quietly in the living room, watching the way the flames cast their dancing shadows on the walls of bookshelves and instruments. She held a bottle of wine in her hooves. She wondered to herself if it would be safe for her to open. The last time she allowed herself to drink alone was after she was asked to leave the Canterlot Symphony. In some ways, this felt like a similar occasion.
"This is the right thing to do," she said quietly to herself, but her hoof trembled.
But she looked longingly at the glass bottle like she was saying hello to an old friend. She nibbled her lip, exhaled, and closed her eyes. With a deep breath, she grabbed a corkscrew and affixed it to the top. As she plunged the weapon in, she couldn't help but wince, as if she had betrayed that familiar trust of her friend.
A rustle the door broke her trance and she set the bottle out of hoof's reach from her.
'Probably for the best,' she thought to herself.
The door clattered open and in walked her roommate, headphones blaring loud music into her ears as she pulled a cart of speakers and electronics inside the home. Octavia kept her gaze on the dancing flames, thinking to herself of everything she wanted to say, contrasted with everything she should say. She already knew that none of it would be correlated with what she will say, but it was for the best.
"How was the show?" Octavia asked, using her inside voice.
Of course, there was no answer. Vinyl was too lost in her music. She might as well have been talking to a wall. She looked to the bottle of wine, as she turned to examine her roommate. Octavia couldn't help but notice that the front door was still wide open. She felt her hooves quiver as she took a deep breath. Vinyl took notice of her friend staring at her, and pulled off her headphones.
"Hey! What's up? I didn't expect you to be up."
"Can you close the door please?" Octavia asked.
"Uh, yeah. I was going to," Vinyl said, optimism quickly leached from her voice. Octavia couldn't help remembering waking up last week to the front door being wide open, then frantically ensuring all of their possessions were still where they should be.
Vinyl shut the door, then trotted back to her electronics, clearly signaling to Octavia that the conversation was over. Octavia leaned back in her chair and stared at the fire once more.
'Maybe I can wait another week. Things might change,' she wondered to herself. 'I don't have to do anything drastic just yet.'
Octavia rose to her hooves and moved towards the kitchen. As she opened the fridge, she kicked Vinyl's socks aside, which were lying on the floor. She searched through the contents of the fridge for something to eat before bed.
"Hey, was there any of that pizza left from last night?" she asked to Vinyl.
"Oh! I had that for breakfast. Were you saving that?"
Octavia sighed and closed the fridge.
"No," she said flatly.
Grabbing a granola bar, she walked back to the living room and watched Vinyl throw her coat on the ground. Octavia felt that heat rising in her veins again.
'Let's not start things, Octy,' she thought to herself. 'The last thing you want to do is say something you don't mean.'
"Can you please put your dirty clothes in your room, or in the hamper, Vinyl?" Octavia asked.
"Yeesh. Bossy much?" Vinyl commented. "I was only putting it there for a second."
"Except, you weren't. You don't just put things somewhere for a second. Your socks from yesterday are still in the kitchen, even though I asked you to take care of them."
"It's been a busy few days. I'm sorry."
"That's fine. I get it. You have a lot of shows. I just. I feel like I'm not asking that much."
Vinyl stopped looking at Octavia and went back to putting her DJ setup back together in her half of the home.
"Vinyl."
"Yeah! Yeah. I'll deal with it!" she says. "Just stop treating me like you're my mom."
Octavia's hoof trembled as she grit her teeth.
"Well, to be honest, I feel like I'm your mom, the way you treat this house."
Vinyl turned to her roommate and glared.
"What! I do my chores. I pay you my half of the rent. What's the big deal?"
Octavia looked to her friend carefully.
"Yeah, you do the bare minimum, but most weeks you don't do anything at all! I do the dishes and the cleaning. I buy all the new groceries and supplies. I just want this to be... you know. Equal. I want to talk this out. We're best friends."
"Yeah, we are best friends," Vinyl said, slapping down a speaker with more strength than necessary. "Then why are you riding my flank over this? This is stupid."
"It's not stupid to me," said Octavia. "I feel taken advantage of."
"Taken advantage of?! This is our house!"
"This is my house, Vinyl. You moved in with me, and we decorated it together. Everything is in my name. You moved in with me when I had my... problem. Moreover, I'll never be able to fully repay you for that. I just..."
Vinyl groaned and shoved her cart to a corner of the room.
"Listen. I'm too tired to handle this conversation. Let's talk about this tomorrow," Vinyl said.
"That's what you said last time we had this conversation."
"We've lived together for years now, why is this a big problem? Why didn't you say something sooner?"
Octavia sighed and moved back to the chair by the fireplace.
"I figured. I don't know. Maybe it would just get better. But it hasn't."
She reclined back into the chair and raised a hoof to her forehead, staring at the fire. Maybe if she said what she needed to say to the fire, it would be easier.
"I don't feel at home in my own house, Vinyl," Octavia said. "You're my best friend. However, I can't come home and find the oven is still on three days in a row, even after I turn it off. This isn't working anymore."
A silence fell over the room. A crackle spat from the fireplace as a few hoofsteps echoed against the wooden floors.
"Are you... kicking me out?" Vinyl asked.
Then the cold swept over. Octavia looked to the bottle of wine. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She remembered Vinyl carrying her home from parties where she blacked out. She remembered the nights studying together at the Canterlot School of Music. She remembered Vinyl picking up the slack around this place after she lost her spot in a for-hire quartet.
'But just because things were good then, doesn't mean it's okay now.'
"Yes, I'd like for you to move out," she said, the words burning her throat and lips. She felt water raise in her eyes, but she remained staring, determined to hold her pieces together.
Another silence fell over the room. Time felt as if it stopped. Octavia wasn't sure if it was seconds, or minutes, but Vinyl eventually responded.
"Okay."
And that was it. Octavia listened with perked attention for anything else. Wouldn't Vinyl have anything else to say? Wouldn't she want to defend herself?
Unless. She was just done.
It was over. Their friendship was over. The little things built up unspoken for so long that there wasn't any going back. Both of them had enough.
Hoofsteps echoed across the room as Vinyl walked to her bedroom door and slammed it shut.
Octavia rose to her hooves, grabbed the wine bottle and uncorked it, a single tear running down her face.
"This is for the best," she whispered to herself. For herself. Then, she drank deeply.
Author's Note
Based on True Events
